Marketing TextThe ADESTE report on "New Training Needs" presents what the labour market and potential professionals consider necessary to achieve their audience development goals. A arts or cultural organisation may focus on a range of goals such as bringing in new and diverse audiences, raising awareness, fostering engagement, building sustainable relationships, etc. How are people working in the cultural sector educated and trained to achieve such objectives? Who is providing them with the knowledge and skills required?

DescriptionThe ADESTE report on "New Training Needs" presents what the labour market and potential professionals consider necessary to achieve their audience development goals. A arts or cultural organisation may focus on a range of goals such as bringing in new and diverse audiences, raising awareness, fostering engagement, building sustainable relationships, etc. How are people working in the cultural sector educated and trained to achieve such objectives? Who is providing them with the knowledge and skills required?

Relying on evidence from the information collected during desk research, interviews, meetings, focus groups, and consultations with the European cross-sectorial group of experts, this report takes a look at new training needs in Audience Development (AD) by exploring the current AD situation and presenting a “desired” one to which professionals and trainers can aspire. The report goes on to compare the two along the lines of: who is providing training; who is receiving training; how training is delivered; the philosophy behind audience development; and teaching methodologies. Finally, the report’s conclusions provide useful recommendations to improve the AD situation involving trainers, cultural professionals, and decision makers.

Audience development is a very different process depending on the country and context in which it is implemented. Looking at Europe, and within the ADESTE consortium, for instance, Audience Development is much more developed in the United Kingdom or Denmark than in Spain, Italy or Slovakia. Even within the same country local conditions will vary depending on the size and location of the city. Differences are also perceived when comparing countries that could be considered playing in the same league. For example, audience development in the United Kingdom is more marketing oriented than in Denmark where a more participative approach is taken. Therefore, the new training needs described in this report should be understood in a broad sense.

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